5 Million Worlds Rokaner Report #17, Twisting Unseen Pre-Launch!
RR#17, Rai, May 2025
Salut tout le monde,
Where do the days go? Feels like last week I was sending April’s Liminal Horror-themed newsletter out. Pas de repos pour les braves.
May was layout month for Not Enough Scoundrels. Last week, I sent pre-print PDFs to backers and ordered a test copy print. The community support I received to turn this modest ships + tables supplement into a 44pg, full-fledged space trucker and smuggler module was a true privilege. I’m very proud of this work. I think it really brings some solid, grounded tools to a Mothership campaign, and I’m excited to hear back from folks using it.
If you missed the campaign, you can sign up for a Late Pledge of Not Enough Scoundrels on BackerKit. With RV Games, we’re aiming to begin the fulfillment process by the end of June.
Twisting Unseen Pre-Launch
Since Not Enough Scoundrels is quickly wrapping (learning from the last go-round!), I am thrilled to at long last announce the pre-launch for my next Sleeper Crew Adventure: Twisting Unseen!
Twisting Unseen is a 36pg Mothership RPG adventure module inspired by BLAME! and Pandorum, where the players Build the Superstructure. While the Sleeper Crew were on ice, unstable Gate technology twisted this failed colony with distant worlds, timelines, and realities. Then the Gates died. Untold years later, the Crew awaken within a subterranean superstructure whose descendants have forgotten open skies exist. The reactivated Gates are their only ticket out of this transdimensional hellhole.
Twisting Unseen has been through three rounds of playtesting, two development cycles, and is now in editor Will Jobst’s hands. Crowdfunding will bring us the final mile to get this adventure into production. This will be the quickest turnaround yet, :)
Sign up for the Pre-Launch on BackerKit to be notified when Twisting Unseen goes live this fall.
Physical zine releases!
When in Rome is a 24pg one-shot Mothership adaptation of last year’s hit film, Alien: Romulus. Evade (legally distinct!) parasitic xenos, illustrated by Brandon Yu a.k.a. Chaoclypse, and a navigate much more interesting Android problem that await you on the space station Caesar/Augustus.
After selling out its first run, When in Rome is available again at RV Games and The Lost Bay Studio.
Bio-Drones & Cryo-Clones is 48pg Cronenbergian mystery where the Sleeper Crew awaken in a decrepit mountain bunker turned to a sordid biomech factory for disgusting lil creatures. Little do the PCs know, they’re on a timer before they Become the Mutant… and have to start again.
For now, Bio-Drones & Cryo-Clones is only available at ratti incantati. They’ve only got a handful, so nab ’em while you can!
Itch Game Jams to Check Out
I know I swore off impromptu games until I finish what I’ve started, buuuuut sometimes a little palate cleanser goes a long way. These are the jams that have most tickled my fancy recently:
Build a Better World TTRPG Jam
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.” Ursula K. Le Guin
Along with Iko and The Lost Bay community, I’m glad to invite game makers to the Build a Better World TTRPG Jam. Come help folk imagine a better future, and explore ways to build a better world through your games. Designers can submit any kind of TTRPG material—games, hacks, adventures, settings, handouts—for any system or kind of game.
Find jam resources and potential collaborators at The Lost Bay server. The jam lasts until summer solstice on June 21st, 2025.
SF Game Jams
For the fourth year running, Staggered Amusement is running an early summer game jam for sci-fi one-shot adventures. Each year, the entries are fun and ususally free, I’d recommend folk check out Sci-Fi One-Shot Jam 2025. I hope to submit a one-page 5MW RPG adventure (the first since October 2024!), which will double for my Build a Better World Jam entry, :)
Now, how about a Mothership RPG pamphlet game jam? The Triptech 2025 Game Jam just ended on May 25th, and received 25+ entries! I really wanted to submit a pamphlet for this one, but just ran out of time. I spent the better part of last week writing and laying out a DOUBLE FEATURE adventure, THE HOUSE OF LIGHT.
I had the idea to play with the format with a hexmap overlapping between the flaps, with the “dungeon” on the inside center & right. It’s a hexcrawl funnel, with the survivors becoming normal PCs to go into the dungeoncrawl. I’ll definitely release THE HOUSE OF LIGHT at some point though, and I’ll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, check out the pamphlets of the Triptech 2025 Game Jam here!
Finally, the Horrors of the Americas Jam for Liminal Horror was extended to July 15th! For submissions that follow the template the LH team released, they do hope to create a POD book collecting them all.
To better represent my home state, I whiled away a day vastly expanding the map of Gnaw Bone I submitted last month, with the hopes of writing NPC owners for each of the Flea Markets, and adding a Motorcycle Bar, Winery, and a Whisky Distillery. (Also, with a town name like Gnaw Bone, it’d be too on the nose to do weird zombie-likes, right? Right?)
La Esquina del Rol
Lastly, Mario from La Esquina del Rol had me on their newsletter for an interview about 5MW RPG. It was revitalizing to talk about the space game again, as I’ve been so occupied with other projects and far from the stars that always call me. Mario’s been on a roll with some great interviews, I’d definitely suggest subscribing to the La Esquina del Rol newsletter to keep it on your radar.
Otherwise, this summer brings some more editing work, development on Milk Bar RPG, continued playtests for A Dark Harvest (we just finished Phase 1 of 3), drafting some more Liminal Horror, and wrapping Scoundrels fulfillment. Carving out some time in the between spaces is the goal. I’ll keep y’all in the loop.
Signing off,
Chris Airiau
Exciting to see Twisting Unseen making its debut!